The Calvary Chapel Christian School of Murrieta, Calif., with 1,300 students, is suing UC for not giving credits for some courses with a "Christian viewpoint" when students apply for university admission. The lawsuit is about theological content in "every major area in high school except for mathematics," says Wendell Bird, a lawyer for Calvary Chapel.

Courses in dispute include history, English, social studies, and science. In federal court here, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero could rule soon on the university system's motion to dismiss the high school's claims that its First Amendment rights to free speech and religion were infringed.

The school has also sued on other grounds, such as that UC has unconstitutionally treated Calvary students unequally compared with other students.

This clash over separation of church and state comes amid recent battles on whether religion can be incorporated into teaching evolution and science. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the Dover, Pa., school board acted unconstitutionally in requiring science students to learn the "intelligent design" theory of life's origins along with evolution. And this week, a group of parents in Lebec, Calif., sued to stop the high school from teaching intelligent design as a philosophy course.

The civil rights lawsuit filed by Calvary Chapel alleges that the 10-campus University of California is trampling the freedom of "a religious school to be religious." UC rejected the content of courses such as "Christianity's Influence in American History" and "Christianity and Morality in American Literature."

In court documents, UC says the free-speech clause of the First Amendment gives it the right to set admission standards. "What we're looking for is this: Is the course academic in nature, or is it there to promote a specific religious lifestyle?" UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina says.

The university rejected some class credits because Calvary Chapel relies on textbooks from leading Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Book. A biology book from Bob Jones University presents creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution. The introduction says, "The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second."

UC says such books would be acceptable as supplementary reading but not as the main textbook.

Bird, Calvary Chapel's lawyer, says this is the first case of its kind because California is the only state that rejects giving credit for high school courses and textbooks on the grounds that they put religion over academics. Any decision in the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Bird says.

Religious educators and public universities nationwide have stakes in the outcome, says Charles Haynes, senior scholar on religious liberty issues at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va.

The case "could have serious implications for religious schools all across the country if the university wins," Haynes says.

UC's policies are "likely to have a chilling effect on Christian schools," he says. "And what about Muslim schools? Are they next? They teach within a Quranic framework. That doesn't mean those kids aren't well-educated."

Parents who home school their children also should be watching the case, says John Green, senior fellow in religion and politics at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C. "Home schoolers, including people on the left, do it because they feel that their values are not being taught."

Ken Smitherman, president of the 5,400-member Association of Christian Schools International, contends that the Constitution bars a state university from denying applicants credit for courses that cover "standard material" but add a religious viewpoint.

"We're not teaching that water boils at a different temperature, or that the periodic table of elements doesn't have some of (the elements)," he says.

The lawsuit against UC alleges that the university accepts courses from other schools taught from a particular viewpoint, such as feminist, African-American or countercultural, so the school can't discriminate against "a viewpoint of religious faith."

Smitherman's group, based in Colorado Springs, has joined the lawsuit. Six Calvary Chapel students who say they want to attend UC, including the football team's quarterback, also are plaintiffs.

Smitherman says enrollment in Christian schools could suffer if parents believe it disqualifies their kids from attending UC, which has 208,000 students. The separate California State University system, with 405,000 students on 23 campuses, adopts UC's admission standards.

Robert Tyler, a lawyer for Calvary Chapel, says parents send children to private schools because "they want their kids to be taught from a particular perspective, and the United States Constitution specifically protects that right."

Christopher Patti, a lawyer for the university, says UC isn't stopping Calvary Chapel or its students "from teaching or studying anything." He says students are free to take courses uncertified by UC, and there are alternative paths to admission - including taking extra SAT tests in specific subjects.

UC has certified 43 Calvary Chapel courses and has admitted 24 of the 32 applicants from the high school in the past four years, Patti says.

"Bob Jones University presents creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution. The introduction says, 'The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second.'" What else do you need? The textbook admits to focusing on religion before fact. It teaches magic (Creationism) and magic by opinion (ID) alongside fact - African_american, feminist, and all the other examples you give do not. No, it's not changing the boiling point of water, but anything that says magic explains what we don't know is not a textbook any respectable school would accept. If we'd always had that attitude, we would never seek answers. We'd stop at 'too complex' (which is entirely an opinion) and head back to church. Creationism and ID are poison to science. And Christians know damn well what the point of this whole charade is. It's not to teach that perhaps aliens created humanity, something they always remind you that ID allows. It's about God in the school, and making it a Christian nation. It's a lie. It's insidious. It's dishonorable. It's aggressive and hateful.

Who is stopping you from speaking, assembling, or petitioning? If the Christian response to everything I'm-being-persecuted? That's sad. No one is taking anyone's rights.

If you want to go to a religious school that teaches variants and non-standard courses, that's your choice. Everyone has that choice. And as with any non-standard path, there is a risk. A risk you knew full weel. If that path makes it more difficult to meet the very clear requirements to get into UCLA, that's life. You then do what's necessary to meet the requirements - not make them meet you. That's arrogance, entitlement, superiority. So you try to bully your in, playing the shrill victim.

Just go to a religious college. That's what they are there for. I can't go to a Baptist University unless I feel like deceiving everyone everyday. I'm not suing them to let me in.

African-American-slanted, feminist-slanted, or coutnercultural-slanted (whatever that means - we know, "evil liberal") do NOT put "women first and science second." No one does that except those whose religions don't match reality. They try to make reality conform. (Well, Christians do. Buddhists and Muslims aren't whining every day about how bad they have it.) Life doesn't work that way. If you put God before fact, that's your choice. You have it now, you'll have it tomorrow. You just don't like not getting everything you want. You feel entitled to do as you please and let everyone else bend to accommodate that. We don't.

And B] Christians are not a race. Christians are always trying to equate themselves with gender and race, and to everyone else, you look like fools for doing so. It's greedy, crass, and shameless.

And look at the last two paragraphs with the statistics. That school is doing fine. Christians just don't like being told no. Well. no. The rules are clear, WE all play by them, we all have the choice of the type of education we pursue, we all live with the consequences of those choices. If you take a path off the main road, we're not moving the road to meet you. I had a billion units in college - all in things that interested me, not in the things I needed to slide easily into UCLA (which is where I'd always wanted to go). And I couldn't go. I made the choice, perhaps unwise, and I live with it, like an adult.

The Way of the Dodo...Archives & Directories

ARCHIVES

MYTHS of the Month

Sidebar Themed LISTSPosts That Make the Baby Jesus Cry *
Posts That Make Pat Robertson Hard As a Rock *
Posts That Just Piss Popes Off *
Posts That Make Satan Giggle Like a Schoolgirl *
Posts That Make Santa Choke on His Nog, Trip Over Toy, Crush Hapless Elf